Reserves

Continued drilling efficiency improvements are driving record production growth in the Williston Basin’s Bakken Shale and helping to push down costs, according to top Oasis Petroleum executive.

Production out of the nation’s shale plays over the past five years, especially the Marcellus Shale, has proven many early skeptics wrong, according to Terry Engelder, a geosciences professor at Pennsylvania State University who helped spawn interest in the Marcellus through his reserve estimates in 2008.

Nearly 1.4 trillion boe of reserves exist in conventional, undeveloped oil and natural gas fields around the world, including almost 1.1 trillion boe of technical reserves, those without firm development plans in place, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Linn Energy LLC is buying Permian Basin oil and gas properties for $525 million, acquiring 30 million boe of proved reserves (about 70% oil) with a reserve-to-production ratio of about 17 years.

Gastar Exploration Ltd. is bolting on another 24,000 acres to its estimable leasehold in the Hunton Limestone in Oklahoma and is continuing to scout for a partner to help develop the property, now estimated to be about 132,400 net acres, the producer said late Thursday.

Citing the quality of Range Resources Corp.’s reserve base, Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday upgraded the Houston-based company’s corporate family rating to “Ba1” from “Ba2” and its senior subordinate rating to “Ba2” from “Ba3.”

The bullish shale gas potential that has remained largely unexploited among Mexico’s rich hydrocarbon resources could be unleashed if Monday’s proposal by President Enrique Pena Nieto to open the nation to more shared private-sector energy investment ever becomes a reality.

Encana Corp. was given the green light on Friday to start up the long-awaited Deep Panuke natural gas project offshore Nova Scotia.

ExxonMobil Corp. said it is interested in helping Ukraine develop its oil, gas, shale gas and coalbed methane (CBM) reserves, and estimates the country’s onshore and offshore gas resources could produce 45 billion cubic meters (bcm) (1.59 Tcf) by 2020.